Jesus Christ is Alive:
Do You Believe this?
Luke 24:1-12
20 April 2025
Today we will be talking about the event that has changed the course of the world, the most significant day in human history…the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The Christian faith stands or falls on Christ’s resurrection, in fact, the apostle Paul wrote, “If Christ has not been raised, then your faith is groundless, your preaching is useless, and you are still in your sins.”
The resurrection is the cornerstone of the Christian faith and the basis for our salvation and transformation because Christ took the penalty for all our sins on His own body, died in our place and then conquered death. Nothing could defeat Him. Since Christ has risen from the dead, Christianity is true, and His life and teachings are vindicated. Jesus' resurrection guarantees our resurrection.
Paul said in 1 Cor 15:42-44:
It is the same way with the resurrection of the dead. Our earthly bodies are planted in the ground when we die, but they will be raised to live forever. 43 Our bodies are buried in brokenness, but they will be raised in glory. They are buried in weakness, but they will be raised in strength. 44 They are buried as natural human bodies, but they will be raised as spiritual bodies. For just as there are natural bodies, there are also spiritual bodies.
This promise of resurrection, of eternal life is for everyone who has trusted in Jesus and has accepted His forgiveness for their sin.
The hope of the resurrection was not something new to the New Testament saints. Job, in Old Testament times, said, “And after my body has decayed, yet in my body I will see God!” (19:26).
Daniel spoke about the bodily resurrection (12:3) as did Isaiah (26:19) and Jeremiah (30:9). They all believed in the resurrection of the body and after that judgment. At the end of time God will physically raise the dead - some will awake to eternal life and others to everlasting shame and sorrow. Only Jesus has the power to deliver us from the latter. Jesus said:
I am the resurrection and the life; the one who believes in Me will live, even if he dies,and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this? (John 11:25-26)
And then He promised His disciples:
After a little while, the world no longer is going to see Me, but you are going to see Me; because I live, you also will live (John 14:19).
We find in the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John that they all recorded the account of Christ’s crucifixion, death, His burial in the tomb, the empty tomb, the encounter with angels, eyewitnesses to the resurrection and ascension, and transformed lives. Yet even with all this evidence people still struggle to wrap their heads around the death and resurrection of Jesus.
Anthony Flew, a famous atheist philosopher became a Deist after debating Gary Habermas around the facts of the resurrection. Flew stated:
The evidence for the resurrection is better than for claimed miracles in any other religion. It’s outstandingly different in quality and quantity.
Flew could not refute the fact that Jesus lived, died, was buried, and that there was an empty tomb and that His body was never found. However, he couldn’t bring himself to believe in Christ’s resurrection despite the multitude of eyewitness accounts and the inception of the Christian faith. He couldn’t bring himself to believe in the resurrection because according to his worldview lens miracles are impossible. Because Jesus' resurrection was miraculous, it was, therefore, impossible. Catch 22.
Even those who walked with Jesus for three years, who listened to His teaching, witnessed His miracles, His crucifixion, and His death came to the natural, logical conclusion that this was the end. No one believed He would come back from the dead. Mike Lecona, a New Testament scholar, summed it up this way:
A dying and rising Messiah was so foreign to their thoughts and hopes that they simply did not hear Jesus, thought he may be mistaken or were in a state of denial while hoping that events would not turn out as he was predicting.
When Jesus died, His disciples were in a state of despair and hopelessness. And this brings us to our passage today. If you have your Bibles, please turn with me to Luke 24:1-12.
1 But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they came to the tomb bringing the spices which they had prepared. 2 And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb, 3 but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. 4 While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men suddenly stood near them in gleaming clothing; 5 and as the women were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, “Why are you seeking the living One among the dead? 6 He is not here, but He has risen. Remember how He spoke to you while He was still in Galilee, 7 saying that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinful men, and be crucified, and on the third day rise from the dead.” 8 And they remembered His words, 9 and returned from the tomb and reported all these things to the eleven, and to all the rest. 10 Now these women were Mary Magdalene, Joanna, and Mary the mother of James; also the other women with them were telling these things to the apostles. 11 But these words appeared to them as nonsense, and they would not believe the women. 12 Nevertheless, Peter got up and ran to the tomb; and when he stooped and looked in, he *saw the linen wrappings only; and he went away to his home, marveling at what had happened.
As we have seen in this passage it had been three days since Jesus had died. On that Sunday we know of at least 7 women who were at the tomb early in the morning bringing embalming spices - Why? Because they were expecting to embalm a dead body. But what they discovered instead was that the stone over the tomb had been rolled away.
On the way to the tomb, the women were talking about who would roll the stone away for them (Mark 16:3), so you could imagine their shock of seeing that the stone had already been moved. The Gospel of John (20:1-2), records that when Mary Magdalene saw the stone rolled away she left the group to tell Peter and John (who were not with the other disciples) that someone had stolen the body. While she was on the way the other women went into the tomb and found it was empty. They couldn’t figure it out and then all of a sudden the angels showed up in dazzling clothes and asked them:
Why are you seeking the living One among the dead? He is not here, but He has risen.
What an interesting rhetorical question - Why are you seeking the living one among the dead? The Word “living” encompasses the whole person - not some spirit or living memory of a person. Jesus is physically alive right now! You’re in the wrong place - He is not among the dead - He is alive! He is risen! Or as the Greek has it “He has been raised!” Their minds must have been spinning!
The angels continued to ask: "Remember how He spoke to you while He was still in Galilee, saying that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinful men, and be crucified, and on the third day rise from the dead?” Do you remember these prophetic words? Jesus taught you that He had to die in order to give his life as a ransom for many so that many could have eternal life (Luke 22:19,20, Jn 3:13,14). He also told you He would rise again after 3 days. When they heard this the lights went on! How often do we forget what we have heard, how often do we need to read and hear the Word of God over and over to be reminded of what the Lord taught?
According to Matthew’s Gospel, there were two scenes happening simultaneously: the group of women were on their way back to the city to bring the news to the fearful disciples and then Jesus appeared to them and greeted them. Meanwhile, Mary Magdalene was on her way back to the tomb with Peter and John. John got there first and eventually both he and Peter went in, saw the neatly folded linen grave wrappings, and were trying to work out what had happened. But as John records, “they still did not understand from the Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.” That's the point - Jesus had to rise from the dead!
As Peter and John go back home, Mary goes into the tomb and meets the angels. They ask her, “Why are you crying?” and she explains, “because someone stole the body.” But as she is leaving she turns and sees a man she thinks is the gardener but when he calls her name she realizes it is Jesus.
Jesus initially showed Himself to Mary and the other women who kept insisting to the disciples that they had met the risen Savior. But what did the disciples do? They dismissed their claim as female hysteria—“silly talk.”
Is this like us today, like the society in which we live? Do we read and hear God’s Word, his teaching, his warning and dismiss them, rationalizing away the things he said for our instruction and example? Just like us at times, the disciples never bothered to think that Jesus meant exactly what He said.
That same day Jesus walked with the two disciples on the road to Emmaus talking about the events that just happened to Jesus of Nazareth in Jerusalem. Jesus taught them what the Old Testament had predicted about Himself yet He wanted them to work things out for themselves.(kind of humorous) When the two disciples stopped for the night, they insisted that Jesus join them. He did, and as He broke the bread and blessed the meal, “their eyes were opened” (v. 31). They recognized Him and then He vanished. Luke records that they immediately got up and returned to Jerusalem where they found the eleven and those with them, hiding together. They said to the eleven: “It is true! The Lord has risen.” While they were still talking about their encounter with Jesus, He himself stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.”
Luke records that on Resurrection Sunday, He presented Himself alive to them and gave them many convincing proofs of this fact. Jesus appeared to them for forty days after the resurrection, taught them, and spoke about the kingdom of God (Acts 1:3). What more evidence could they ask for?
They saw the empty tomb.
They met their risen Lord and talked with Him, ate with Him.
Then they took His Word at face value.
Their lives were transformed and they turned the world upside down with the Gospel!
The Easter message is clear! Jesus Christ is alive! He had to rise from the Dead! To show us that…
Our faith in Christ is not in vain!
Our sins are forgiven!
Our hope is sure!
We have Peace with God.
Death is not the end of the story!
The grave does not have the final word!
We have a new life
A new destiny
A new identity - our lives never have to be the same!
Do you believe this?
Do you live like this?
Almost every religion can talk about a prophet, a guru, a leader who died. Only Christianity can talk about a prophet who died and who physically rose again, who is alive, still active, still speaking, still interceding, still saving and still changing lives forever - Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Savior of the world.
